@Red_Kinetic: Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I had a lazy day off work, lying on the couch today. Didn't check my online stuff all day. Anyway, I'm still pretty new to this site, and I don't see any way to send private messages. So, shoot me an email if I haven't figured it out by the time you read this: nods@live.ca

@Red_Kinetic: I'd be more than willing to do that for you. I wouldn't charge you anything other than the cost of the console and shipping. I know how much it sucks to be excluded from a region-specific release. Let me know if you haven't already figured out something else.

The stuff about lack of internet access in Canada, though, is just ridiculous, and reflects the ignorance of people reporting such nonsense. The fact is, broadband internet became widely available in most major regions of Canada several years before it was widely available in the U.S. The only places that would have "near third-world" access to the internet would be regions with small populations. We are 36 million people spread out across the 2nd largest country in the world; there are many parts of the country that are virtually unpopulated. 90% of Canada's population is within 160 kilometres of the U.S. border.

Wow! I've obviously been sleeping, as I haven't checked gaming news for a few days. I just found out that this thing existed. What a pointless SKU, though; no online support, and Nintendo just recently said that they have no new games in the pipeline for the Wii. Also, why is it only available in Canada? What a strange decision. I live in Canada, so I'm not complaining about a Canadian exclusive release, but... we have just over one tenth the population of the U.S.

Weird... Thanks for the heads-up, Orla. I still need to download DKC3, so I''ll do that before it (and any trace of Rare's glory days) vanish completely.

Great feature! I loved the atmosphere and presentation of Cursed Mountain. I thoroughly enjoyed it, until the broken combat control scheme rendered it unplayable for me. I was so disappointed. Anyway, I'll be celebrating Halloween today by playing Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the first time.

I would also be willing to pay more if it made a difference. However, my fear is that companies wouldn't actually change anything about labour practices, they'd just charge more and say they were changing things without actually doing so. Call me cynical, but... y'know.

Good on you, Thomas, for writing and posting this article. Indeed, there are no easy answers, and, in fact, these aren't even easy questions. I voted that the labour issues make me think twice about buying a Wii U, but honestly, I'm still going to buy one. I'm not cancelling my pre-order over this. It's pretty hard these days to avoid products made in China, and many of the things we buy were manufactured under poor working conditions. That doesn't make it right, but it's the reality we live in.

I highly doubt this is true. As someone else mentioned, releasing "stopgap" systems was what ended up taking Sega out of the hardware business. Why would Nintendo want to follow in their footsteps? Sorry to be a bubble-burster, but I think they're serious when they say they're not trying to compete with Sony, Microsoft, or anyone else in terms of hardware horsepower.

Well, that's a PR nice statement, but what is Nintendo going to do if Foxconn doesn't comply with its "Social Responsibility" policy? Tell them to stop manufacturing consoles for them? Probably not. We need to look at the bigger picture as far as labour practices in China go, and sending a few underage workers back to school isn't going to solve the problem over there.